Free Republic

Multiple refineries in California have recently declared their intentions to shutter operations, leaving the Golden State uncertain about future fuel supplies and impacts on prices at the pump. Valero Energy Corp. was the latest to make such an announcement, alerting the California Energy Commission (CEC) last month that it would “idle, restructure or cease refining operations” at its Benicia refinery by the end of April 2026. The Valero notice followed similar news at Phillips 66 in October, when that company said it would be ceasing operations at its Los Angeles-area refinery in the fourth quarter of 2025. Firms are attributing...

John Kerry's Fellow TravellersA 5-part series exposing John Kerry's Communist connections.Part 4: Subversion in the Senate: Kerry's Communist ConstituencyBy Fedora *NOTE: The term "fellow traveller" as used in this article series refers to someone who is not a member of the Communist Party (CP) but regularly engages in actions which advance the Party's program. Some apparent fellow travellers may actually be "concealed party members": members of the CP who conceal their membership. Which of these classifications is applicable to the Kerrys is a question this series leaves unresolved. This series does not argue for any direct evidence of Richard or...

A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém. It aims to ease traffic to the city, which will host more than 50,000 people - including world leaders - at the conference in November. The state government touts the highway's "sustainable" credentials, but some locals and conservationists are outraged at the environmental impact. The Amazon plays a vital role in absorbing carbon for the world and providing biodiversity, and many say this deforestation contradicts the very purpose of a climate...

JD Vance and his family were confronted by angry pro-Ukraine protesters during their trip to Vermont. The family was then moved to an 'undisclosed location'. US Vice-President JD Vance and his family were met with intense protests during their weekend trip to Vermont. Angry pro-Ukraine protesters criticized Vance for being 'mean' to Volodymyr Zelensky during the Ukrainian President's visit to the White House on Friday. The protesters booed Vance and told him to 'go ski in Russia"...

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – A man and a woman from Oregon were arrested over the weekend for reportedly impersonating firefighters as they attempted to enter a Palisades Fire evacuation zone in what appeared to be a legitimate fire engine, officials announced Sunday. In a news release, officials with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said the suspects, identified as 31-year-old Dustin Nehl and 44-year-old Jennifer Nehl, were spotted by LAPD patrol officers on Jan. 18. Not believing the fire truck was legitimate, police relayed the information to sheriff’s deputies, who caught up to the suspects. LASD said that when they contacted...

For years, world leaders have accused Russia of funding environmental groups in Europe to steer nations away from energy independence and strengthen Russia’s iron grip over the continent. As nations across the globe begin shunning Russian oil in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. leaders are also questioning how deep Russia’s ties go in the environmental community. "The Russians actually fund some of the most rabid environmental groups in Europe because they sic them on the energy projects that aren’t Russian," James Carafano, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign...

A groundbreaking lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas accuses financial giants BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street of colluding to manipulate the U.S. coal market. The case, spearheaded by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and supported by 10 other state attorneys general, alleges that these firms have used their substantial ownership stakes in major coal producers to suppress competition and artificially raise energy prices. The states listed as plaintiffs are” Texas Alabama Arkansas Indiana Iowa Kansas Missouri Montana Nebraska West Virginia Wyoming According to the 108-page complaint, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street collectively...

They saw what happened (or didn't happen) when antifa made American cities unliveable. Now it's their turn. Election time is on, so what better than for Europe's eco fanatics, the toddler-like people who have been blocking highways and throwing their food on Europe's art masterpieces, to take their show on the road to the states come summer? According to the Daily Mail: Europe's top climate activists are planning a 'large-scale civil disobedience campaign' of highway blockages, hunger strikes and disruption at 'federal properties' in the US in August, DailyMail.com can reveal. Leaders from Extinction Rebellion (XR) and other European groups...

For a nation that’s supposedly laden with hard-headed common sense and a strong work ethic but is in fact more left-wing than anything else, Germany has slammed into the wall that bedevils similar political philosophies all over: they’ve run out of other people’s money to spend. And with what is so common among nations afflicted with a multi-party political system, their latest coalition government has therefore collapsed, crucified by essentially three factors: immigration (and growing popular resistance thereto), insane socio-economic policies fueled by Green eco-nonsense (e.g. an EV mandate which has led to closure of auto factories and concomitant unemployment),...

By getting governments to over-regulate farming, elite oligarchs like Bill Gates and Klaus Schwab aim to take control over food production in the name of sustainability. Besides ‘degrowth’ and ‘net zero,’ one other dangerous buzz phrase being bandied about by proponents of the Great Reset is “nature-positive food systems.” The stated goal of moving to new food systems is to reduce nitrogen emissions, livestock production, and meat consumption. This is to be achieved by consuming plant-based products, lab-grown foods, and insects (as a source of protein). The moot question, however, is whether such a change is at all necessary? The...

EXCLUSIVE: The head of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) has called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to launch an investigation into whether Russia secretly funded U.S. green groups that advocate against domestic oil and gas production. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., led a letter to Yellen Friday that cites a 2015 Washington Free Beacon report that suggested the California-based Sea Change Foundation may allegedly be a conduit for Russian oil interests in funneling money to groups like the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Sierra Club and the Center for American Progress.

Lawmakers in both parties are bracing themselves for a messy aftermath to Election Day as polls show the race between former President Trump and Vice President Harris is so close in several battleground states that it could take days to determine the winner. Democratic senators say they fear Trump and his allies will seize on any initial uncertainty over the results to claim election fraud if Harris is projected the early winner. Some lawmakers are already girding themselves for another battle on the Senate and House floors over certifying the election if Harris is declared the winner. Though Congress passed...

A LEADER of climate protesters Extinction Rebellion was last night exposed as a diesel-driving eco­-hypocrite who buys imported food. Gail Bradbrook was shopped by a member of the public who saw her stocking up on Waitrose goods that had travelled thousands of air miles. Gail Bradbrook was exposed as a diesel-driving eco­-hypocrite who buys imported food The hypocrite was spotted by a member of the public who saw her stocking up on Waitrose goods that had travelled thousands of air miles The shopper who spotted her told The Sun: 'She was doing everything Extinction Rebellion tells us not to do'...

Wiebo Ludwig,(Alberta farmer) convicted of bombings in 1990s, says he understands frustration that leads to sabotage. RCMP called in members of a local search and rescue team on Saturday to help sift through a 300-metre debris field surrounding the second of two pipeline bombings. "It's likely we'll still be there tomorrow," RCMP spokesman Tim Shields said. Anything out of the ordinary hidden in the long grass and fallen leaves could lead them to the bomber. RCMP also released a partial description of a pickup truck seen leaving the scene the morning of the latest explosion. That blast happened before dawn...

The Supreme Court seemed to signal interest this week in taking up a challenge launched by Hawaii against big oil companies to hold them liable for climate change, and some Democrats are suggesting the high court is "captured" for the fossil fuel industry. The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Justice Department to weigh in on a petition to hear a lawsuit brought by the City of Honolulu against major fuel companies including Sunoco, Exxon and Chevron, claiming the companies’ products cause greenhouse gas emissions and global warming without warning consumers about the risks. The city employed a series of...

A 26-year-old transgender Antifa activist from Alabama named Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert was arrested this week and charged with illegally possessing and detonating an explosive device outside the state’s Attorney General office in Montgomery. The Post Millennial Senior Editor Andy Ngô posted about the arrest on X Wednesday, writing, “According to court documents, Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert had extensive Antifa propaganda he allegedly used around the time of the bombing. He allegedly made an IED with nails. Calvert is charged with malicious use of an explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device.” Calvert is being charged with “malicious use...

The Biden administration’s well-funded push to build out a national network of electric vehicle (EV) chargers has so far resulted in only a handful of installations, according to The Washington Post. The bipartisan infrastructure bill of 2021 allotted $7.5 billion to subsidize thousands of EV chargers to help the administration’s goal of having EVs constitute 50% of all new cars sold in 2030, but only seven stations in total have been built in four states to date, according to the Post. The slow rollout of the EV charger funding is unfolding as the Biden administration has recently issued stringent emissions...

The “highly toxic agricultural chemical” is federally allowed to be used on oats and other grains imported to the US, according to the EWG. When applied to oat and grain crops, chlormequat alters a plant’s growth, preventing it from bending over and thus making it easier to harvest, per the EWG. Roundup for Breakfast, Part 2: In New Tests, Weed Killer Found in All Kids’ Cereals Sampled A second round of tests commissioned by the Environmental Working Group found the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup weed killer in every sample of popular oat-based cereal and other oat-based food marketed to...

There is currently a war being waged against America that threatens the very liberty of our nation — and it’s one you might not expect. It's not the war on free speech or freedom of religion. It's the war on beef. Who better to discuss this war than American cattle rancher Shad Sullivan? Shad is the R-CALF USA Private Property Rights Committee chair. In this episode of "The Glenn Beck Podcast," Shad and Glenn discuss the “war on beef” and why it matters to everyday Americans. Shad explains the issues with California’s Prop 2 and Prop 12 and how they...

The cost of a dozen eggs has now surpassed the price of a pound of beef, marking the first time that’s happened since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping data in 1980. The average price of a dozen large Grade A eggs ran at $4.82 in January 2023, while a pound of ground beef was $4.64. In January 2022, eggs were $1.93, and beef was $4.77, but egg prices have soared by 70% in the last year alone. Farm Action, a farmer-led advocacy group, says the “real culprit” behind sky-high prices is a “collusive scheme” among top U.S....